The idea came about five or six years ago, when the principals of the Gayndah State School and St Joseph's Catholic School thought of building an arts centre to provide students with an opportunity to pursue that passion.

"There are a lot of opportunities for sports for our kids but very little in the arts," said Liam Dougherty, principal of St Joseph's school.

The convent was built in 1919, and served as both school house and boarding house to students. The Sisters of the Good Samaritan lived in the building until 1995, when they moved into a smaller house in town.

"Even though the building was still solid, it was just too expensive to do any work to. It had just been sitting there, with a few rooms here and there being used," Mr Dougherty said.

The then principal of the Gayndah State School, Kelly Jeppesen, found information on the Local Schools Working Together pilot program, a federal government grant. The program is designed to encourage independent and Catholic school to work together with government for the benefit of child education.

"So we thought a great idea would be to apply for an arts centre," Mr Dougherty said.

"We both took the risk and put some money into getting an architect to do a concept drawing. We had no idea of what the result would be."

Nine months later, the schools heard the good news; they were successful, and would to receive $2.37 million in project funding.

Mr Dougherty says that's when the real work started, as the schools worked out how to best use the facilities.

The facility is a partnership between the two schools, and the North Burnett Regional Council. It's this partnership that Mr Dougherty credits with the success of the application.

"It wasn't just to benefit one school, it was to benefit both schools and also the wider community."

The convent, which is now the Gayndah Art Gallery, contains a visual arts room, music room, performing arts room, commercial kitchen, and a public art gallery.

The inaugural exhibition in the gallery was a showcase of Gayndah artists, and Mr Dougherty says the students were very excited at seeing the works.

"It's just incredible to see the kid's faces when they see the artwork from local artists.

"They haven't been exposed to this before and it was a new thing for them. The excitement and the wow factor for kids that it was something new."

Mr Dougherty says a lot of the excitement comes from seeing the names of people in the community, and not knowing about their artistic skills.

"Some are parents and aunties or uncles from the schools, or people they know in the community and how talented they are. In some cases that was probably the biggest surprise for the kids."

The art gallery has been built to high standard, with the hope of attracting top quality artists. Mr Dougherty hopes Gayndah itself will reap the rewards of bringing that kind of talent to town.

"For me it's not so much about what exhibitions we can get to Gayndah, it's what Gayndah can get from the building and the gallery itself.

"I think for students who haven't had the chance to experience the arts before, this is a great chance for them to see what they may be capable of, and give them some hope to express themselves through arts.

"I think that would be the greatest thing from it."

The push to give students an opportunity in the arts ironically comes from a principal who is into sports.

"Interested yes, but I've never really been an arty person myself; I've always been sports mad."

But Mr Dougherty says that hasn't lessened the excitement, for himself and the school community.

"It's been a very exciting project, and there has been a lot of help along the way. The school staff and the parent body have all been very supportive.

"It's been good for the community to see the schools working together. I think that is important for a state school and a non-state school to be working together for the good of the kids.

"The concept of the building is more about community than the actual building itself, and that's what I think has been its greatest success."